Senseless sensors

Senseless sensors keep you sitting at a red light, while there is no traffic in any direction.

The other day I was sitting trapped at one of these intersections that has a sign saying “NO TURN ON RED”. When I approached this intersection, the light was green, and there was a line of cars ahead of me.

Nobody was waiting at the cross street (where the light was red) to go. Nobody!!! Nonetheless, HALFWAY through this stream of cars, the light inexplicably turned red. As a result, I had to wait – for no one to pass. Why? What point is there in having sensors, if they don’t exhibit any actual SENSE?

The way these sensors is supposed to work, according to this page, is to manage inconsistent traffic flow effectively and detect when cars arrive at intersections. Sometimes I wonder if the sensors are even real, or if they’re just put there to fake people into thinking they’re traffic cameras, which is probably something else I should write a post about.

Have you encountered senseless traffic sensors? What do you think of them? Please tell me in the comments below.